Kitsune wrote:Wow Ragnar...
So, how much hard honey alcohol have you been saving away now? Or does your wonderful wife not let you make anything that strong anymore?

Different Wife.

I have not got a brew on at the moment, as you can not buy the "brew kits" here, where you get a tin of treacle like stuff which is the concentrate hops and malt. The trouble with boiling your own hops is, the whole house smells like a heard of elephants have just farted in the living room, and for 5 hours as well. NOT a good idea when it is one flat in an eight flat house.

MEAD though, I have just got to find a kettle big enough. (five gallon).

Back when I was about fourteen/fifteen, I was making homemade nettle/dandelion beers with what was found in the wilds. It's actually remarkably easy, although in the end much of my first batch was used as a compost enhancer. :-" It was actually very nutritious, too.

Crazy Healer LadyHealth and happiness to you!

The purpose of a relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness. -CWG

Kitsune wrote:I never realized that it was so easy to make mead... Hmm, I must admit, for the amount I drink it's not even worth it to comtemplate (except as gifts), but it's certainly an interesting skill.

Was it just the fact that you'd added honey that made it so strong, or the fact that you added so much?

That was the recipe for beer. I made it into mead by using honey instead of sugr (and yes it goes on amount).

Pure mead is much easier to make.

Here is a recipe used by the Germanic tribes;
STAGE 1

Bring 6 liters of water to the boil. JUST as it starts to boil add one kilo (or more. see later) of honey. Bring to the boil again, CONSTANTLY stirring. SWcrape off the "scum".

Let it cool down to hand warm and add 50 grams of yeast. (Brewers yeast can be used today. No NEED to grow your own).
To add yeast, take a half liter, or so from the main pot. Disolve the yeat in that, then pour the lot back into the main pot.

STAGE 2

NOW, you put the whole lot into a stone jar, or a few stone jars, OR a sterlized plastic bucket. Leave this/these to stand at room temperature.

After two days syphen into bottles, or whatever you will be using as the final recepticle. This MUST have a gas tight fastening.

STAGE 3

For five to six days leave the lid/Gas tap, whatever only loose, so excess gas can escape without it acting like a grenade and spraying our deccor a pretty honey colour. AFTER the 5 or 6 days, fasten tight.

Put this in a cool cellar, or shed, or wherever it will not be in the way, and will stay reasonably cool.

Leave for at LEAST three months.

After that it is ready.

STAGE 4

HONEY:

As with every brew the strength depends on the amount of sweetener. The more sweetener, the stronger the brew will be. BUT it must also be remembered that the more sweetener you have, the longer it will take to be ready for the final "bottling", because the yeast needs more time to turn the extra amount into CO2 and ALCOHOL ( ).

The trouble with this is the longer it stands "open" the more chance you have of getting vinigar fly into it. So if you are in an area where fruit flys abound, use a THIGHT fiting VERY fine weave muslin cloth to cover the bucket during the second stage.

LOL we got some Co2, but they wanted their beer to resemble Pop. It was drinkable and alcoholic, but we weren't about to win any awards. I am glad this is up now, my husband and I often talk about retiring on a farm where we make our own micro winery and brewerry (he does wine I do beer) with an organic garden.

Shame you have to work before you retire eh?

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991)

Willow wrote:LOL we got some Co2, but they wanted their beer to resemble Pop.

The secret lays in the sugar in the bottles just before sealing them. THAT makes it like pop. It ALSO adds strength. BUT be carefull. TOO much sugar and too much warm, and they can go off like grenades.

Willow wrote: It was drinkable and alcoholic, but we weren't about to win any awards. I am glad this is up now, my husband and I often talk about retiring on a farm where we make our own micro winery and brewerry (he does wine I do beer) with an organic garden.

Would be great. BUT with the ageing popultion in Europe, and the banks being about as reliable as a chocolate jock strap, most of my generation and after are going to be luicky to be able to afford a new candle to light the way to bed once a month.

But THAT is another topic.

Willow wrote:Shame you have to work before you retire eh?

Yup. Although if your work is fun, then....

As to retirement, I give a BIG vote for the Grizzly Adams method myself.

Me, It's my hope that I can get my writing career off the ground in the next 4 - 5 years. I realize that while I almost certainly won't be the next JK Rowling, If I could get my revenues up to 50k to 100k per year, I'd be sitting pretty in a nice small place on an acerage of mostly forest, with a couple of big dogs, my husband, and the pretty-est little grove you'll have ever seen, because it's mine.

Retirement would be when I have enough saved to travel away with my husband on two week to one month long vacation in a different country every year! Heck, since I'd still be writing, it wouldn't even seem like a retirement.

Trying to create a world, even in words, is good occupational therapy for lunatics who think they're God, and an excellent argument for Polytheism. -S.M. Stirling